sewing: pyramid bags

I decided I wanted to try making some dice bags, maybe even sell them. However, selling them requires bags to sell, which meant, finding some bag types I can make.

I decided to try making pyramid bags - maybe I'll make a big one for a knitting bag sometime; they seem to be quite popular. All three bags have fusible fleece fused to the outer fabric, and quilted in straight lines lengthwise at ~2.5cm intervals.

Because I have a hard time understanding what's going on with sewing (or knitting) until I've actually done it and seen it with my own eyes and hands, I chose a tutorial that looked reasonable (probably because it was one of the first hits on a Google search). The bag went together well, but was both smaller than I expected (despite there being measurements... but again, this goes with my difficulty visualizing the end product) and the lining had exposed seams. I was also not terribly pleased with the top end of the zipper. Rectangle size: 10x20cm. That's two full sets of standard gaming dice (my dice!)

So I went searching for something that would explain how to do a lined pyramid pouch with no exposed seams. I could really only find one that looked clear.  I increased the bag size (rectangles 15x30cm), added a bottom pull tab as well as the top pull tab (which was bigger than necessary but only so that the owls could be whole!). I should have done the fabric zipper stops as shown in the tutorial (her pink zip bag), but at the time I didn't really realize how useful it would be. I was happier with the second effort, but the top of the zipper is messy, and both top and bottom look like they are straining the fabric a bit and I expect those to be the points that give way eventually. G dumped a pile of his dice and tokens in there to check capacity.

I then hunted around for a better zipper solution. This tutorial, as well as this one from Threads suggested a cleaner top edge, but the first one has raw seams, and the second one is (I think) unlined. I went to bed thinking about bag construction and how to do a lined pyramid with the folded zipper on the long edge while still having no raw edges on the inside. I put it to the test this morning. Fabric was again 15x30cm, and it came out about the same size as the last one. The bottom of the zipper does have a bit of strain; I did a double seam to reinforce it, but I'll need to see if I can figure out a way to add in a fabric stop on this folded style of zipper.

I'm really very pleased with how this worked out. Now that I know how it goes together, I can play a bit more with directional fabrics. G thinks I should appliqué numbers on the sides to mimic tetradonal dice (and he also had even fancier plans of animal faces and such), or make one with googly eyes on either side of the zipper, and the zipper pull a tongue, to suggest a D&D monster, the Mimic. We'll see.

First I need to get more zippers.